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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28982817">Runner</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaneleHaralue/pseuds/HaneleHaralue'>HaneleHaralue</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adoption, Angst with a Happy Ending, Assisted Suicide, Child Abuse, Child Soldiers, Evil Shimura Danzou, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture, Jfc these tags i forgot how sad this gets, Multi, Root is terrible, Self-Harm, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Team as Family, Trauma</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:02:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>13,948</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28982817</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaneleHaralue/pseuds/HaneleHaralue</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Mint is extremely invasive. Mint grows and survives, even when starved and poisoned. Better not to plant it at all."</p><p>--</p><p>Sometimes knowing everything doesn't save you from anything.</p><p>An SI/OC story, told from outside POVs.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hatake Kakashi &amp; Uchiha Obito &amp; Original Character(s), Namikaze Minato/Uzumaki Kushina, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Team Minato &amp; Uzumaki Kushina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>55</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. I - IV</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Mint is extremely invasive. This fast growing plant sends out runners that will overtake a plant bed. Plant them in containers or beds separate so they do not spread. Mint grows and survives, even when starved and poisoned.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Better not to plant it at all.</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>I.</strong>
</p><p>The baby cried a lot.</p><p>She just kept crying and crying, and everyone at the orphanage had given up on trying to sooth her out of her fits. Even the kindest hearted and dedicated individuals needed constant respite from the child's squalls. The best part of everyone's day was when she finally fell asleep, too tired to continue being upset.</p><p>It was at a time like that that Saori, one of the newer girls hired there, was told to go in and check on the infant. Cursing Kiyo for managing to snag breakfast cooking duties before she had, she let herself into the room and approached the fitfully sleeping child. Carefully, so as not to wake it, she lifted the child from its crib and sniffed. Diaper was still clean, she determined somewhat gratefully. She went to put the child back down, but froze when she noticed that its eyes were open and watching her.</p><p>Old, haunted eyes on children was not something Saori was unfamiliar with. There were a few children at the orphanage brought to them by the Uchiha Military Police, victims of unspeakable things, and those were the eyes they carried with them. But that didn't explain why this child had those eyes. She'd only just been left with them a couple months ago, cut out of the mother who had died during the birth. Months old, and already like this.</p><p>"What's made you so wrong?" she murmured to the baby.</p><p>The baby didn't answer. She just continued to stare with those bleak eyes.</p><p>Saori sighed. It would be best to just get the thing fed and put back to bed before the wailing commenced once more. Tucking the child into her arm, she moved as quickly as she dared to find a bottle in the kitchen.</p><p>
  <strong>II.</strong>
</p><p>"Children!" the orphanage matron called. "Children!"</p><p>The girl standing at her side watched as children of various ages poured into the room, followed closely by other employees of the orphanage. Even as she contrived a look of affability about her person, the girl's eyes catalogued each of the children very closely. In her head, she'd drawn a chart with three categories and began sorting them.</p><p>
  <em>No. Nin. Ne.</em>
</p><p>Already, she'd caught three of them taking her measure as well, their eyes having darted straight to the hitae-ate she'd purposefully strapped to her hip, turned to the side. Not noticeably visible. Unless you were looking for it.</p><p>One of those children was immediately dismissed when they loudly began barraging her with questions about her being a ninja. The girl continued watching the entire group, but she kept a special eye on the two, the boy and the girl, who had caught it before.</p><p>"Children, please, settle down so I can introduce our guest," the matron called out. Once they had quieted, she spoke once more. "Everyone, this is Yakushi Nonou-chan, and she used to live here with us before became a successful kunoichi and got her own place!"</p><p>All of those tiny faces swiveled over to look up at her in pure adoration. Nonou gave an embarrassed chuckle and reached up to fiddle with her glasses. As she did so, she surreptitiously glanced at the girl child.</p><p>Had she imagined the girl flinching during her introduction?</p><p>
  <strong>III.</strong>
</p><p>Sounds of pants, flesh hitting flesh, and pained whimpers filled the room.</p><p>There was a boy facing a girl, crouched several feet away from one another. They breathed heavily, a kunai held by each of them.</p><p>He took in her appearance, noting the mussed hair, and sweat and blood staining her uniform. Both of them had been fighting for so long, he'd lost track of time. His only measure of time now was the cuts he had managed to carve into her skin with his kunai like tally marks. For a second, he caught himself remembering a moment long ago. Back before either of them had been brought to this place.</p><p>A time when they both had simply been children at the orphanage, and their greatest concern was whether they would be adopted. Or whether they would go to the civilian or ninja academy. It wasn't weird for there to be kids who didn't want to be ninja, but he remembered how the one time someone had asked her if she wanted to be a ninja, she had yelled and screamed. It was really strange, someone who hated ninja as much as she did.</p><p>He wondered now if maybe she had been the only one of them thinking right back then.</p><p>Pulled out of the orphanage, promised a new and happy life, and then put into this pit of suffering.</p><p>This was hell.</p><p>And he felt sorry for this girl, just as he felt sorry for himself. Neither of them had wanted this. Neither of them deserved this.</p><p>However, after today, one of them would no longer have to be here.</p><p>It all came down to this fight today. He knew he was a better fighter than she was. He was stalling. This fight would've been over much sooner if he had been more serious from the start. A fight to the death was a terrible time to make decisions about the future, but it was an important decision, it needed time to be thought over. They weren't really children anymore and this wasn't a game, and he couldn't make a mistake and regret it forever.</p><p>Only children were allowed to make mistakes.</p><p>His mind made up, he raised his kunai and prepared to charge. He saw her do the same, and asked her for her forgiveness. It was time for him to end this.</p><p>.</p><p>A moment later, as his eyelids became heavier than lead and wetness dribbled from the corner of his lips, he offered the girl a smile as he hovered over her. The first he had given anyone in a very long time. Though her expression never betrayed her, the liquid leaking from her eyes into her hair did. His rusty smile creaked a little wider.</p><p>Was she crying for him? Or for herself?</p><p><em>Probably both</em>, he thought, as he finally collapsed on top of her, his eyes closing for the last time.</p><p>
  <strong>IV.</strong>
</p><p>"Dismissed. Operative Hakka, stay."</p><p>All of the other operatives shunshined out, leaving the lone operative he had called out behind. She had just returned from a mission in which she was team captain for the first time. What she likely had not realized was that there had been two other senior operatives with her evaluating her performance.</p><p>Her success at the information gathering and infiltration turned assassination mission had been expected. If she had underperformed in any way, he would have been severely disappointed. He only wanted the best on the mission he would now be sending the girl on, and if she had failed now, he would have had to scrap it. She was the only operative he had of appropriate age with the necessary skill set to send on this.</p><p>"Mask," he ordered.</p><p>The girl complied, and soon he was staring at the face of his youngest elite operative. Almost nine years old, and the best he had at information gathering and infiltration. Her age played a part in that, but it was her high intelligence and talent of slipping into whatever role was required of her that set her apart. Child operatives were both ideal and disastrous to train. Their youth made them malleable, but ultimately they were too weak and dependent to be truly useful for more delicate work. Operative Hakka was not the first child operative he had trained. She was simply the first who was able to survive long past activation thanks to her consistent ability to take initiative and improvise when the mission called for it.</p><p>That was why most child operatives had a shelf life of a year or less once they were put into the field.</p><p>(What he would have given to pick Hatake Sakumo's brain for training methods before the fool had taken his own life.)</p><p>"Operative Hakka," he said softly, his lips forming into something that could be considered a warm, fatherly smile, "You did well on this last mission."</p><p>"Arigatou, Danzo-sama," she said with a bow.</p><p>"So well in fact, that I have decided to give you a solo mission."</p><p>"It is an honor." She sunk even deeper into her bow.</p><p>When he bid her to sit back up, he handed her a scroll and began speaking as she started looking through it.</p><p>"As I said, it is a solo mission of indefinite length. You will be gathering intelligence on your targets, a potential political threat and his ward, and reporting directly back to me with it. No detail is insignificant. For the duration of this mission, you will not receive any other assignments unless there is an emergency."</p><p>She nodded.</p><p>"Who should I be?"</p><p>"Anyone, as long as you do not make your targets suspicious of you."</p><p>"Necessity of assassination?"</p><p>"Low."</p><p>"Necessity of seduction?"</p><p>"At your discretion."</p><p>The girl rolled the scroll back up, handed it back, and bowed lowly once more.</p><p>"I am pleased to have this opportunity."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. V - VII</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>First impressions, from bad, to worse, to utterly alarming.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>V.</strong>
</p><p>"Hello, my name is Hakka. It is nice to meet all of you."</p><p>The girl cocked her head to the side, her eyes slipping closed and her lips twitching in a smile.</p><p>There was silence on the rooftop as the three males standing with her stared expectantly. She continued to smile. They continued to stare.</p><p>She smiled.</p><p>They stared.</p><p>She smiled.</p><p>And.</p><p>"Hakka-chan," the blonde man and only adult in the group said, chagrined, "You're supposed tell us more about yourself - about likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams - so we can have a better idea about what kind of teammate you will be."</p><p>"Oh." Her strange, jade green eyes popped open. "I am sorry Namikaze-sensei, but I do not like or dislike anything, nor do I have any hobbies or dreams."</p><p>The roof was once again plunged into silence. One of the boys, goggles nestled in his messy dark hair, glanced at his sensei and the other familiar looking kid who was supposedly his other teammate. Both of them looked about as lost as he did. No likes or dislikes? Frankly, he called bullshit. Even the other guy, as bland as he was, had responded with something.</p><p>Training this, training that, blah blah blah, best shinobi ever. <em>Boring</em>. But still <em>something</em>.</p><p>"Oh come on, there has to be something you can tell us!"</p><p>Her gaze zeroed in on him. He began to sweat under the weight of that disconcerting stare. Was she upset? Angry at him? Finally, thankfully, she broke eye contact, shaking her head.</p><p>"Well, uh…" Namikaze-sensei began, saving the boy the trouble of saying anything else, "Then I guess that's all for today then. Alright, Team 7, we'll be meeting at Training Ground 3 tomorrow."</p><p>"For training, sensei?" the dark haired boy asked excitedly, "Ooh, or a mission? Will it be cool?"</p><p>The other boy snorted.</p><p>"Not quite Obito-kun," Namikaze-sensei answered, "I will be testing you and Hakka-chan, to see whether or not you really will be working with Kakashi-kun and me. If you fail, you will be sent back to the Academy."</p><p>"WHAT?!"</p><p>(He'd swear later on that he hadn't shrieked like a girl.)</p><p>It was already bad enough that he was going to be on a team with a now very familiar jerk and a creepy weirdo, and not with Rin-chan. Now he may not even be on a team period.</p><p>
  <em>What did I do to deserve this?</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>VI.</strong>
</p><p>"My apologies, Hatake-san," someone above him murmured.</p><p>The sun blocked his view of their face. He would have lifted an arm to block the light streaming down into his eyes, but not being able to move anything from the neck down made that a little difficult.</p><p>"What did you do?" he grit out, pretending he couldn't hear the loser howling with laughter in the background.</p><p>"Senbon coated with a mild paralytic agent," his teammate responded clinically before kneeling beside him and swiping the inner side of his arm above his armguards with a finger, "Nicked you right here while you were punching me."</p><p>Somewhere between enraged and impressed, Kakashi offered a simple, "Hn."</p><p>He began to panic a little when she pulled another senbon out and made to jab him with it. Though he'd never admit it, he was more than a little relieved when Minato-sensei was suddenly there at her side, grabbing her wrist to keep her from sticking it in him. Kakashi watched as she blinked before looking at sensei questioningly.</p><p>"The match is over Hakka-chan," the blond explained calmly, tugging her wrist down.</p><p>Because he knew his sensei, he could see the worry and disappointment that lurked in the man's expression. It wasn't obvious though, sensei was a jounin for a reason.</p><p>"I know that," Hakka commented, "But Hatake-san is still paralyzed. I need to reverse it."</p><p>"Reverse…?" he heard sensei murmur, before a light went off behind sensei's eyes.</p><p>One last measuring look, and then he released the girl's arm. In a flash, she stuck the senbon into Kakashi's arm right where she'd gotten him with the first one. The boy winced at the feeling and for a terrible moment, wondered if she would be cold blooded enough to lie to their sensei and really harm or kill him while he was defenseless.</p><p>The minute feeling began to return, his body tingling strangely as it did, he finally dismissed that worry and chided himself for doubting the man's ability to tell truth from lie. Minato-sensei moved to his side to help him sit up. For a moment, he wanted to ask sensei something about his female teammate, but whatever it was got stuck in his throat. It wasn't like he really wanted to know anything about that creepy girl anyway.</p><p>Instead, he settled for watching as she trotted over to the moron who was still rolling around on the floor and flicked him on the ear.</p><p>"Uchiha-san, please stop laughing. This is the first and likely only time I will ever best Hatake-san. With knowledge of my methods, he will be able to counter any attempts I make to paralyze him in future spars. Now," she paused to grasp the other boy by the forearm and pull him to his feet, "It is time for our match."</p><p>He watched her drag a babbling Obito into position across from her. The idiot began to sweat when he noticed her holding several senbon between her fingers as she settled into ready position. Kakashi attempted to hide his own flinch from sensei at the sight of them, narrowing his eyes so it would seem like he was focusing on watching the fight instead.</p><p>"Stop glaring Kakashi-kun," he heard the man say, as hand came down on his head, "You know she's right. You'll learn from this."</p><p>Frowning under his mask, he leaned away from the hand.</p><p>His body was still tingling.</p><p>
  <strong>VII.</strong>
</p><p>Not for the first time, he wished sensei wasn't such a damn pervert.</p><p>Minato really hated these clandestine meetings Jiraiya-sensei set up in the red-light district. Even though Kushina was so understanding about his sensei's eccentricities and him getting caught up in them, he really wished she didn't have to be. Hanging around in the red light district would usually be reason enough to make any normal person's girlfriend upset. Only once had he ever voiced his complaint to sensei, only to be laughed off by him and teased about being whipped.</p><p>If he hadn't shaken away his thoughts right at that moment, he would've missed catching sight of something peculiar through the beaded doorway of a brothel he was passing. As it was, he had looked up and his eyes had landed on a girl. He wasn't blind; he could see she was attractive. And younger than him, but there was little else worth noting. Still, something about her gave him a vague sense of familiarity. So familiar, it had him stopping in the middle of the street for a closer look. When just looking at her didn't get him anywhere, he extended his chakra sense.</p><p>Maybe she was just one of the usual girls hanging off sensei's arm when he was in Konoha. When the pulse of Minato's sense reached the girl's chakra and started feeling it out, his heart just about stopped beating and internally he recoiled at the recognition.</p><p>Her signature was one that he had become very familiar with during the last months.</p><p>It was a struggle to stay right where he was, instead of marching in there and snatching her up and away. Sighing, he instead leaned against the wall opposite the brothel to wait, watch, and try to understand what this was. After a second of thinking it over, he performed a quick genjutsu to make where he stood go unnoticed by passerby and then summoned a toad to send a message to sensei. He didn't know how long this would take, but Jiraiya-sensei could wait.</p><p>He remained camped out there for almost half an hour before he felt a sudden displacement of air at his side. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Jiraiya-sensei lounging against the wall right next to him. Normally, he would've greeted him, but he was too engrossed in his stakeout to do so.</p><p>"This is your more important business, Minato?"</p><p>"Hai."</p><p>They watched as the girl nuzzled closer into a client's side, and bared her neck for him, giggling coquettishly when the man's lips attached themselves there.</p><p>"Cute," the older man commented with barely feigned disinterest, "Who is she?"</p><p>The younger man had to take a calming breath through his nose before responding.</p><p>"That's my student, using an advanced partial genjutsu technique to augment her appearance to look older."</p><p>Even though he didn't look, he could tell that the other man was taken aback.</p><p>"I thought you said she was ten! They're not supposed to-"</p><p>"I know that," Minato said, his words trailing off into a growl.</p><p>"But you didn't know about this."</p><p>"No." The blond man shoved his balled up fists into his pockets. "But I'm going to find out why."</p><p>A hand dropped on his shoulder.</p><p>"Jeeze," Jiraiya-sensei huffed, "And I thought Kakashi-kun was your problem child."</p><p>Minato chuckled darkly.</p><p>"So did I."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Chapter/Story Format Notes: No changes to the plot this chapter. Little edits and additions of lines and dialogue, just because it sounded better. The length of these chapters/segments will vary. There is no pattern to whose POV will or will not be used, and I will not always make it obvious.</p><p>Thoughts while reviewing the chapter: Oh, Obito, you cute dumb baby. Ah, Kakashi, you're a tsundere with an undiscovered competency kink. Good luck when puberty hits, kiddo. Hmm, Minato. All I gotta say is, I'm sorry man.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. VIII - X</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Orphans aren't uncommon in a hidden village recovering from war.</p><p>Finding a family is a little more rare. More precious. If you let yourself be found.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>VIII.</strong>
</p><p>The woman paused in her eating to glance at the girl stirring her chopsticks in broth.</p><p>In her mind, she tried to recall their first meeting. What she was left with was a vague recollection of a dinner with her boyfriend's team where she spent most of her time wrapped up in Minato, amusing herself with feeding the boys' antics, and eating. Admittedly, she really hadn't paid much attention to the only female member of Minato's team when he had finally decided to introduce them to her. Every other person in the four man team had a more dynamic personality, especially the Uchiha boy. Somehow, that kid even had a way of bringing Kakashi-kun to life, even if it was just to fight over nothing.</p><p>She'd tried to make small talk at first; thinking she could coax out an interesting inner nature to the quiet girl. The girl just sat there listening blankly to her and offering clipped but polite answers that revealed little more than the minimum required of her. While she was certainly more verbose than Kakashi-kun (not that that was hard), it was pretty significant when someone was more emotionally stunted than said boy.</p><p>Where she wanted to wrap both boys up in her arms and cuddle them like ill behaved and un-house-trained puppies, the girl made her want to put pole lengths between the two of them like she was the moldy mutated food at the back of her refrigerator.</p><p>Weeks later, she now found herself on some kind of bizarre adoption blind date with the very same girl.</p><p>Now, she loved her boyfriend. <em>She did.</em> He was a kind man, and a great shinobi.</p><p>But to be frank, he could be a bit of an idiot, too.</p><p>He had barged into her apartment just the other day and proposed dropping a kid in her lap. While Minato claimed that he just needed her to keep an eye on the girl for some reason, she knew there was more to it. What he was asking of her was basically housing and raising a child for an undefined amount of time. If he thought that because she was woman, she'd be able to tap into some deeply (very deeply) buried maternal instincts, he had another think coming. She was a kunoichi, not a mother or a babysitter (though she had an obscene number of D-ranks under her belt that said she was at least capable of that work). She really didn't know the first thing about actually raising kids in that long term / possibly permanent sense. The only lessons she could possibly impart on a child would be how to swear, brawl, and burn water.</p><p>And how to eat a bowl of ramen in less than two seconds.</p><p>First thing she had done was take a breath. Next thing was give Minato a flat and unsympathetic no.</p><p>She felt for him and for the kid, but she was unshakably certain that she was the wrong human being for the job he was asking of her. And at the time, it had seemed like he accepted her steadfast refusal.</p><p>Only, she had been wrong seeing as how just before disappearing on her during lunch, her dumbass had informed her that the girl's apartment had suddenly, <em>mysteriously </em>been <em>flooded </em>and she was now looking for somewhere to live. And of course, the moment he disappeared, the aforementioned girl sat down with her at suddenly vacated stool at Ichiraku's.</p><p>Kushina took a moment to really look at her. Thinner than a kunoichi should be, with dark grooves carved under each pale eye. He'd told her that the girl had been an orphan her entire life, and that once she became a genin, she was forced to live on her own without the orphan's stipend. A genin's salary was not enough for a child to pay for rent, let alone food on top of that. Just because Hakka was considered an adult in the eyes of the village, didn't mean she really was one. The certainty she felt earlier was shakier than ever.</p><p>Ten year olds shouldn't be forced to choose between having a bed and food to eat.</p><p>She didn't know what possessed her, but suddenly her lips were moving and she was babbling out, "Would you like to live with me while you search for a new apartment?"</p><p>The girl said nothing, just stared back at her.</p><p>"Because, you know-ttebane," Kushina went on, starting to feel a little less confident, "Minato's got a kiddo of his own, and I'm a little jealous. I'm really bad at looking after myself, but I promise that while you live with me I'll do a better job looking after you than I do myself. So what do you say?"</p><p>Those dull green eyes of hers locked onto Kushina's own azure. For a moment, she caught a flash of vulnerability, of fear and hope, before it flickered away and the girl simply nodded.</p><p>"You're sure?"</p><p>A nod.</p><p>"Really, positively?"</p><p>The nod seemed less sure, but it was still a nod.</p><p>Something in her stomach squeezed. Maybe it was nerves, finally deciding to give out on her. Maybe it was indigestion from the fifteen plus bowls of ramen she'd just been eating, building up to this moment. Either way, she was pretty sure she was about as dumb as Minato for going along with this.</p><p>But she could do this. She could afford take out for two. And if the girl needed things, she could totally buy things. And whenever the girl started puberty…</p><p>Well, that was what Mikoto-chan was for.</p><p>
  <strong>IX.</strong>
</p><p>"Uchiha-san."</p><p>Obito jolted. How had she seen-?</p><p>"Your hair's poking out."</p><p>"Wha-!" he exclaimed, jumping out of the bush he'd been watching the girl from.</p><p>Hakka treated him to a flat stare. Obito chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head. Anxiously, he waited for her to start interrogating him about exactly why he had been spying on her. He didn't know if he should've felt a little let down when she simply went back to doing what she had been before she'd called him out. Wasn't she curious at all?</p><p>Had he just imagined her shaking her head? His eyes went wide like saucers. Was she reading his mind?</p><p>As if to finally take pity on him, she voiced the long awaited question, "Why are you here, Uchiha-san?"</p><p>"Ah, haha, yeah, I'm here cause…"</p><p>Admitting you were spying on someone because you were lonely was kind of pathetic. Minato-sensei was off on some big, super-secret mission with the teme, leaving him behind in the village with Hakka-chan. He would've tracked down Rin-chan to hang out first, if he didn't already know she was busy on a mission to deliver medical supplies with her own team. And he might've stuck around the Uchiha compound if he could hang out at Mikoto-ba-sama's with his favorite little cousins, but based on the lecture Fugaku-ji-sama had given him, the clan head didn't want Mikoto-ba-sama bothered so soon after she had given birth.</p><p>That really left him with only Hakka.</p><p>Which as an option was… meh.</p><p>Maybe initially, he hadn't much liked his distant, and somewhat creepy, teammate. For a long time, her blunt and critical comments about his performance made him wonder if she was conspiring with the teme to make him feel lower than dirt. His first month on Team Minato had been miserable to say the least. But while Hakka-chan could've said things a million times nicer like Rin-chan always did, she never said anything just to be mean like Kakashi-teme. And it took a little while longer to realize that she was just as critical of their other teammate as well. Even Minato-sensei from time to time.</p><p>Recently, she'd even started saying some nice things about how he was improving at stuff. It wasn't enough to convince him that she was any less weird, but he did like it that someone besides Minato-sensei was acknowledging his growth. He didn't really have a lot of people who did that for him.</p><p>It was that thought that finally convinced him that maybe hanging out with (read: spying on) Hakka-chan wouldn't be that bad.</p><p>Now here he was, out on the outskirts of Konoha, standing in what looked like a weird garden with her. He was pretty sure this was the teme's fault somehow.</p><p>Just as he was about to take a step over to her, she quickly threw up her hands in a sign that screamed stop.</p><p>"Don't come any closer," she warned.</p><p>"Why?" he asked, bewildered.</p><p>"Some of these plants are poisonous," she explained. The confusion on his face must've been obvious because she continued by saying, "Poisonous enough to naturally give off deadly gas."</p><p>"WHAT?" he exclaimed, zipping backwards and holding his arms out in front of him, "How are you even-? Why would you need-? Where did you-?"</p><p>"I have built up an immunity from handling them so much," she answered him even though he hadn't fully asked, "These plants are how I make the compounds that coat my senbon. I..." she paused, "found most of these plants at Training Ground 44 and on Nara property."</p><p>Mentally, Obito made a promise to himself to never visit Training Ground 44 or the Nara Compound if he could help it.</p><p>When his thoughts cleared, he found her staring at him expectantly.</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"Why are you here Uchiha-san?"</p><p>"Oh, uh right. I'm here 'cause-" before he put his foot in his mouth by admitting that he was a loser who was desperate for companionship and she was his last resort for hanging out, he was cut off by a long, loud growl.</p><p>From his stomach.</p><p>He didn't know whether to pale or flush. His face was similarly confused.</p><p>"Would you like to go eat?" Hakka suddenly asked, surprising him out of his embarrassment.</p><p>Just as he opened his mouth to respond, and maybe find a way to regain his dignity, his stomach growled again.</p><p>Walking past him, she paused for a moment to catch his eye, before beckoning him with a tilt of the head.</p><p>"Come."</p><p>So he followed.</p><p>
  <strong>X.</strong>
</p><p>He blinked.</p><p>It wasn't strange to be greeted at the gate when he and Minato-sensei returned from a mission. If she was in the village and not out on a mission of her own, Kushina-san would try to be out there waiting to greet them. He would wait until the woman was too busy with sensei to make his escape. She always wanted to… hug him, after she was done with the other man. Or ruffle his hair, or poke at him to show her his injuries, or any other number of annoying and demeaning things. He was a chunin of Konoha. He didn't need bothersome people trying to take care of him. Why couldn't she be more like Minato-sensei, who knew when to back off?</p><p>As they had approached the gates, both he and sensei had seen her bright red hair from miles away. He'd begun mentally running through his usual escape strategies when, after they'd gotten closer, he realized that the woman wasn't alone. On either side of her stood one of his teammates. He cursed. It would be more difficult to just slip off with more eyes on him and if one of them tried to engage him.</p><p>Although, knowing his teammates (which he didn't, but he at least felt like he had a good measure of them), they probably wouldn't want to talk to him anyway. The dobe hated him and his other teammate wasn't one to start conversation, ever. He could get away.</p><p>His plans, however, fell away when he and sensei were close enough, and he saw what his teammates and sensei's girl friend were holding. It was a- what the hell was it even?</p><p>It looked like some kind of banner. "Welcome Home" was painted on it, in eye-gouging orange and surrounded by red swirls. Getting closer allowed him to pick up on the terrible penmanship of the words. Closer still and he noticed something else strange.</p><p>Illustrations. Surprisingly good looking ones at every corner. Obviously not made by whoever had written the words (and he strongly suspected that had been the dobe). One was a toad wreathed in flames, another a dog with a henohenomoheji face, the next an orange and black uchiwa, and the last a plant he didn't recognize with long stretching roots. Altogether, the entire thing was an eyesore.</p><p>Sensei seemed to disagree with him, if the wide grin on his face and his shout of joy was any indication.</p><p>The man spent a good half a minute admiring it before he darted around and pulled Kushina into an embrace. A moment later, and the adults had grabbed one of his teammates each and pulled them into the hug, the banner getting crushed between them. The moron was as enthusiastic about it as the girl was apathetic. For a second, he felt a grain of sympathy for his female teammate, especially considering the fact that the red-haired banshee his sensei called a girlfriend practically had her in a headlock.</p><p>Normally, he would've taken advantage of their preoccupation to flee.</p><p>However, for some reason, the scene gave him pause.</p><p>He didn't know why, but when he looked at the four of them, the first thing that came to mind was</p><p>
  <em>family.</em>
</p><p>They looked like a family.</p><p>He didn't even know what family was. He had no mother. No siblings. There had been To- that man. And now he lived with Minato-sensei. But the way Minato and Kushina held each other like husband and wife, how they held the boy and the girl like they were their children, it looked so right and wrong.</p><p>And he didn't know why.</p><p>They were only feet away from him and he felt so far away.</p><p>So caught up in his thoughts, Kakashi didn't notice until it was too late to even kawarimi away that sensei and Kushina had reached out together to enfold him into their hug. He struggled, putting an elbow in someone's midsection and smacking someone else in the face. It wasn't long before he realized he was just wasting his energy. He just needed to bide time until he could disappear. Even if that meant putting up with the moron complaining loudly in one ear about being "Too close to the teme!" Or putting up with the girl's chin being hooked over his shoulder, her breaths puffing across the back of his neck.</p><p>He suppressed a shiver. Only to jump when he heard her whisper something.</p><p>"Are you well Hatake-san?"</p><p>The question was so unexpected, he was answering in the affirmative before he could cut it off with a grunt.</p><p>"Ah. That's good."</p><p>He tensed as he felt a hand rest upon his shoulder blade.</p><p>"Welcome back."</p><p>In quiet panic, he managed to finally get his hands together and kawarimi a safe distance away. He found himself on the receiving end of pouts and chortles. Kakashi avoided looking at the girl entirely, decidedly not needing to see her reaction. Quickly, he muttered something about turning his and sensei's mission report into the Administration Building hurrying over. Sensei called after him, but he didn't hear it.</p><p>As he leapt from rooftop to rooftop, unbidden, his mind wandered back to the banner, and an odd thought occurred to him, <em>How did they know I had dog</em> <em>summons?</em></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Chapter/Story Format Notes: No changes to the plot this chapter, just some edits.</p><p>Thoughts while reviewing the chapter: Cackling at the fact that Hakka just fucking admitted to multiple acts of breaking and entering in dangerous (Training Ground 44) and illegal (Nara Compound) territories. And Obito, the child of a clan that runs the police ninja, only cares about about never making these places a travel destination. </p><p>Also, big props to Kakashi being the only sensible one wanting to socially distance and wear a mask.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. XI - XIII</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anyone can be more than their first impression, if given another chance.</p><p>Look underneath the underneath.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>XI.</strong>
</p><p>In the beginning, Sensei, Kushina, even Hokage-sama, had warned him about being too focused on one student. He had a team of three students, he should treat them equally. The message had been received loud and clear - he couldn't favor Kakashi-kun more than his other two.</p><p>(Not that that had stopped Sensei from favoring him over his own teammates.</p><p>And if Sensei's stories were accurate, it hadn't stopped Hokage-sama from favoring Orochimaru-san, either.)</p><p>In his mind, he'd convinced himself that he was doing that by giving all of them the same training and paying the same amount of attention on missions. But that wasn't really the same as treating them equally, was it? Because at the end of the day, Kakashi-kun was his apprentice and would be the one he went home with, where he knew he'd have food and shelter, and was right down the hall to check in on. And it was constantly at the forefront of his mind to help Kakashi, fix Kakashi, save Kakashi from the past that continued to haunt him.</p><p>It had been easy to forget that his other students had demons in their pasts, too.</p><p>Obito-kun had been the easiest to figure out, and the easiest to dismiss. An orphan as well, maybe the only thing he had in common with both of his teammates. But he had an entire clan to support him, and while the situation didn't seem to be the happiest for the boy, he was better off than Kakashi-kun or Hakka-chan. He got along with other people in his age group, making friends and finding ways to keep himself content. Minato had been least worried about him, but considering how wrong he'd been about his last student, he thought maybe he was wrong about the boy, too.</p><p>Hakka-chan, at first glance, seemed to have many of the common traits of an unclaimed orphan. From birth, she had nothing, not even a surname to claim as her own. Overlooked and shuffled around due to the surge of refugees arriving in Konoha after the end of the war, there was a resulting lack of paperwork detailing her early life. She had had enough documentation to receive the orphan's stipend, which afforded her a crap apartment in the poorest district of Konoha. Some other classic traits of orphans, she had grown painfully closed off and fiercely independent. Unfortunately, like many orphans who became ninja to improve their lot in life, hit a wall when their stipend was yanked away and they were left with a measly, inconsistent income based on genin missions.</p><p>All of that was what Minato had assumed had driven his student to start frequenting the red light district. He'd been so sick with the thought that he had failed her so badly, he'd begun trying to do everything he could to change her situation. Subtly of course. Years of dealing with Kakashi-kun taught him that he couldn't confront the problem straight on. He had to do it more… sideways.</p><p>Getting her out of that apartment and somewhere safer and more affordable seemed like the solution.</p><p>As it turned out, it wasn't.</p><p>Even though she was living with Kushina, even though she was eating properly, even though she making enough money on missions to save or spend however she wanted, she was still, she was still-</p><p>It was only then that he realized that there might be something more behind it. She could be in debt. She could be in more trouble than he could have fathomed.</p><p>There was still more to do.</p><p>
  <strong>XII.</strong>
</p><p>So it had become a thing.</p><p>During down time, if Rin-chan was unavailable and he was once again strongly discouraged from hanging around with Shisui-kun and Itachi-kun, he would go hunt down Hakka-chan. At the earliest and latest hours of the day he couldn't find her no matter what he tried, but other than those times, she was pretty predictable. In the late morning she would be meditating at Kushina-san's, at midday she would be at that really popular tea place that he was sure was her favorite, and in the late afternoon she would be tending her deathtrap of a garden.</p><p>For some reason, he liked spending time with her when she was gardening best.</p><p>It wasn't like he cared much for gardening. Frankly, those plants creeped him out (especially the one that had eaten a squirrel, a SQUIRREL). But Hakka-chan always seemed most - what was the word he was looking for? - open, the most open when she gardened. Until he'd discovered that, it had never occurred to him that his female teammate could be open. Like, he'd been sure both she and the bastard were actually robots or something, and bastard got programmed with the jerk personality while no one had even bothered to give Hakka-chan one.</p><p>Except she did have one. A personality. It was just reallyyyyy hard to find under all the fake stuff.</p><p>He was pleased to find that she was actually a very kind, if strange, person… at least, to say, she was kind to plants. She really loved her plants, so much that she had named each of them, talked to them, cared very meticulously for them. Being around them seemed to make her relax, make her almost friendly.</p><p>There had been one day when he had been really bored that he'd asked her to tell him what each plant was. She'd done so, and it had gotten boring again once she got done with the plants that ate rodents or spat acid. He'd noticed a set of plants sitting in pots away from the rest of the lot and had questioned her about what they were and why they were kept separate.</p><p>She told him all of it was some kind of mint, and that she kept them separate because mint had these root things called runners that went all over the place. If they were planted with everything else, the runners would choke off and kill all the other stuff in garden. When he asked her why she planted it then - <em>like, is it poisonous or helpful or something like that? </em>- she'd stopped what she was doing, blinked, and then told him.</p><p>"It… smells nice and tastes good."</p><p>It was the most impractical thing he'd ever heard her say.</p><p>He'd grinned at her then, and said, "I guess you must really like it, huh?"</p><p>Even though she had shrugged at him in response and gone back to doing what she'd been doing, he noticed the slight curving of her lips. And usually, she smiled so they could be seen in all their fake and eerie wonder. This time, she kept her head down, her face mostly hidden away in the leaves, but he could see it.</p><p>It was the first time he had ever seen her smile and knew she meant it.</p><p>Anyone who could smile like that, he was sure, wasn't a robot.</p><p>
  <strong>XIII.</strong>
</p><p>Kakashi tried to fight it. Tried to will his body not to react. But as much as he fought, he could not stop it.</p><p>His eye twitched.</p><p>He just didn't understand it. How had she done it? How had she done what many had tried and failed to do?</p><p>As if to further irk him, the thing sitting contently in her lap started to purr.</p><p>Today, as a way to strike up "friendly competition" between the three of them, Minato-sensei had proposed a mission challenge. The first one to complete it would get to choose the restaurant they would eat at once they had finished. It wasn't like Kakashi cared where they were going to eat, food was just food. But his teammates seemed to be getting a bit cocky in their spars with him lately, so he needed to win this to remind them that they were still leagues behind him in skill.</p><p>Except, that hadn't exactly gone to plan.</p><p>Of all of the missions to pick for them, it had to be the mission to return Sora the (demon) cat back to its owner, the fiancee of the Fire Daimyo. It was a mission that tended to go back and forth between being a D and C rank mission, depending on the mood of the target that given day. Typically, the mission was given as a punishment or a tracking exercise. Hunting the creature down was a momentously difficult task. It was lightning fast, devilishly clever, and impervious to most genjutsu if one could even accomplish casting a genjutsu on it.</p><p>Having taken the mission once or twice in the past, he was sure he had an edge on the other two who had not been treated to this particular mission yet. Especially now that he had more skill in tracking and his summons were beginning to get the hang of doing it as well. He and Pakkun had been on the damn thing's trail for almost twenty minutes. Just when he thought he'd had it cornered, he'd found it like this.</p><p>Another purr rolled out of the creature that had, without fuss, crawled its way into his teammate's lap. It was currently nuzzling further into her and licking at her arm.</p><p>As if to add insult to injury, the thing hissed at him and Pakkun before lying back and allowing the idiot, who had been sitting next to the girl, to pet it.</p><p>"Mission done?" Pakkun asked in halting yips and growls.</p><p>"Yes," he forced, reminding himself to not take out his irritation on Pakkun.</p><p>He had to turn away from the scene, especially when the two started giggling (the dobe) and whispering (the girl) things about "cat" and "mints" and "gardens" like they had a secret.</p><p>"Team 7," he bit out, and heard the slightest shift of the ones behind him standing, "Let's report to the mission completed."</p><p>"You're probably going to want to go to Kannou's, huh?" Kakashi heard the his male teammate comment as they began to move.</p><p>"Why?"</p><p>"Because you won, duh."</p><p>"I suppose I did." A long silence drew out. "It doesn't matter to me where we go."</p><p>"Oh come on, you won, it's your call."</p><p>"Really Uchiha-san, it's fine. I'll leave it up to Minato-sensei."</p><p>"Obito, Hakka-chan. You'd think I'd never told you my name before. It's <em>O-</em>bi-<em>to. </em>Got it memorized?"</p><p>There was another long silence.</p><p>"Hakkaaaaaa-chaaaaaan."</p><p>Silence.</p><p>"Hakkaa-"</p><p>"For the love of-" Kakashi finally ground out, turning to face his annoying and dull teammates, "Uchiha, shut up. She'll never call you," <em>or me,</em> "by anything but your surname."</p><p>He shot a glare at the girl and the cat in her arms.</p><p>"Now hurry up. We need to return that thing, collect our pay, and get on with whatever place you'll be subjecting us to."</p><p>She opened her mouth to say something, but he ignored it and started briskly walking in the direction of the Administration Building. Pakkun was there close at his heels, and not a moment later, the other two fell in behind him once more.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Chapter/Story Format Notes: Like last time, no changes to plot, threw in an additional couple lines to Minato's POV that made him about 10% sassier than the original. Good on you, dude.</p><p>Thoughts while reviewing the chapter: That Kingdom Hearts reference is making me laugh and cringe, but it's okay. It's okay. I'll just continue enjoying how ridiculous the garden shenanigans are. As an amateur gardener, I'm endlessly amused by gardens fighting back against the backyard animals that usually wreck them.</p><p>Anyone enjoying my pretentious ass chapter summaries? I'm really trying hard to be deep here, is it working? Please at least pity laugh if it really is coming off as pretentious as I feel like it is.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. XIV - XVII</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Outside the team, there are friends to be made.</p><p>Outside the team, there is plotting afoot.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>XIV.</strong>
</p><p>"Again," the man sitting in the chair ordered.</p><p>The child, her arm hanging broken and useless at her side, struggled to push herself to her feet to face him. Judging by the way she placed slightly more weight on her back leg than average as she took her ready stance, her front leg was likely injured as well. If this were really training with one of his students, he may have stopped here. Or at least stopped to explain to her the purpose of this as an exercise. But she was not his student, and the purpose of this farce of a training session was known to all parties present. They all just took care to not acknowledge it for what it was truly was.</p><p>"Operative Hakka." The girl stiffened in acknowledgement but did not look away from her opponent. Good, but even the distraction was enough for him to move in for a strike. "It has been reported that you are no longer living at the apartment that was assigned to you. Why is that?"</p><p>"My apartment was flooded. I was forced relocate."</p><p>"I also note that you are now living with Jounin Uzumaki Kushina. How did that come about?"</p><p>There was a hitch between the girl's block and counterattack, the man facing her noticed.</p><p>"Jounin Namikaze Minato set up the arrangement. She is his significant other."</p><p>"That is very advantageous to your mission. Was this arrangement planned?"</p><p>"No, Danzou-sama," the operative answered as she barely dodged a foot to the gut.</p><p>"Hmm." The man facing her could admit he found that sound incredibly irritating, and he had been on a team with two of the most irritating, loud people on this earth. "I suppose that I am fine with you keeping this arrangement for as long as it is available to you."</p><p>"Un."</p><p>"However," the old war hawk started, and as he did so, made a hand signal to the man facing her.</p><p>Moving faster than the girl could react, the man slammed a fist into the side of her face that sent her flying through the air and crashing into a wall. If he had put anymore force into that blow, he would've killed her. As it was, she assuredly had serious bruising on her back and possibly a dislocated jaw.</p><p>"However," Danzou repeated, "You have failed to avoid attracting the suspicion of Jounin Namikaze Minato. He is asking questions of your origins, and digging into the gaps in your records. He won't find anything to lead back to us, but if he is not turned back from this path, he may soon involve his teacher and even the hokage himself."</p><p>Everyone present understood fully the weight and implication of that statement. The old ninja stood and crossed the room to stand before her.</p><p>"You will devise a way to divert his attentions."</p><p>The other operative's guess about the dislocated jaw were confirmed when instead of answering verbally, the girl simply bowed in lieu of it.</p><p>"Operative Hakka, you will report to Operative Nonou to be healed and then you will return to Jounin Uzumaki Kushina's home." He turned. "Operative Hebi, you are dismissed."</p><p>The operative nodded and turned to leave.</p><p>Danzou was a fool.</p><p>He thought himself so clever, the puppet master did, bending men, women, and children to his will. Bend them too much, and his pretty toys broke. Yet he didn't seem to understand that as he used and misused his puppets again and again. Beat what made them someone out of them, and there would be nothing left. Not even the fear of death. And once that was gone, only death could await them.</p><p>Operative Hakka… such a shame. He remembered her smaller, and so full of rage, and hate, and fear, and hope. So unpredictable and delightful. What he could have done with her if he had gotten to her first.</p><p>Such a shame.</p><p>
  <strong>XV.</strong>
</p><p>"You know Uchiha-san has romantic feelings towards you, Nohara-san."</p><p>Glancing furtively at her companion, she found her gaze unwavering and off putting still.</p><p>Why exactly had she agreed to this?</p><p>Oh, that's right. Because she thought Obito-kun's teammate would actually be someone normal.</p><p>Not long ago, she'd noted a change in the conversations she had with her longtime friend. Before, he'd often come to her and spend much of their time together complaining about his teammates. It appeared that one of said teammates, previously assumed to be strange and rude, was responsible for the shift in their talks. Now she was often treated to days where Obito-kun would only spend a small fraction of his time griping about "Bakashi," what he'd recently taken to calling the other boy. Much of the rest of the time was spent talking about whatever he had done recently with the mysterious "Hakka-chan."</p><p>All of it had made her curious about actually meeting the other girl. It would be beyond wonderful to be acquainted with another female kunoichi. With her entire family, her best friend, and her entire team being all male, she had been wondering if her life was doomed to be a testosterone wasteland. So she had asked said best friend to arrange a meeting between the two of them at a café that he claimed his teammate favored.</p><p>Of course, now Rin was wondering how she hadn't seen this coming. Anyone who hung out with Obito-kun had to be strange like him or stranger. She was still wondering if she should run now to avoid acknowledging the girl's comment.</p><p>"Um."</p><p>"You pretend you don't know."</p><p>Blushing furiously, the medic-nin in training looked down, wishing she could make the other girl stop talking.</p><p>"You are trying to avoid hurting his feelings." There was a long pause. "And you seem to have a history with my other teammate."</p><p>"How did you-?" Rin nearly squeaked, "No one is supposed to know about that!"</p><p>"A guess," Hakka-san answered blandly, before raising her cup of tea to her lips to blow, sending warm, sweet-smelling gusts of steam across the table.</p><p>Rin goggled at her, wondering if guessing wildly accurately was true.</p><p>"Why would you even bring any of that up?"</p><p>"The wellbeing of my teammates is important. You have the potential to cause harm to them."</p><p>"I would never hurt either of them!" Rin protested.</p><p>"Maybe not intentionally. But the more someone matters to another person, the more harm they can cause them with even the simplest of words or actions. I want you to be very careful with the way you treat my teammates, because at least to one of them, you are a very precious person."</p><p>Rin wondered if she should be angry at this girl. What right did she have to lecture her about how she treated her friends? Still.</p><p>"Is this your way of telling me I better not break your teammates' hearts or else?" she finally asked somewhat jokingly, deciding to try humor over anger.</p><p>This seemed like something out of those shoujo mangas that her civilian cousin liked to read. It was always smarter to keep a cool head in situations like that.</p><p>"If that is how you would like to take it."</p><p>That pulled a chuckle out of Rin.</p><p>"Do you always have these kinds of talks with people you meet for the first time?"</p><p>"No."</p><p>"Really?" the medic-nin in training frowned, "What makes me so special then?"</p><p>"You're special to Uchiha-san. Anyone special to my teammates is special to me."</p><p>"Somehow, I feel like that's a big admission coming from you." Rin pulled her own cup of tea close so she could wrap her hands around it and let the heat seep into them. "You really care about those two, don't you?"</p><p>Instead of answering, Hakka-san took another sip. Rin smiled knowingly. Obito-kun's teammate was strange indeed, so abrupt and blunt, but she obviously cared a lot about her teammates.</p><p>It was a relief to know that Obito-kun had someone else besides her watching out for him. Even as friendly as he was, he seemed to have trouble making true friends with anyone else like she had with their other age mates at the Academy. Not many people seemed to know what to do with an Uchiha who was actually nice. She had worried that, when they had been put on different teams, things would only be more difficult for him.</p><p>As for Kakashi-kun, she worried in a similar but different way. No one knew, but before the Hatake clan fell from grace, the Nohara clan had been one of the minor clans in their service. Her family had helped look after her and the boy together when they were very young because they were the same age, and Hatake-dono had needed someone to help tend his son after his mother had died. But after his father's failed mission, her family come after hard times themselves, many including her mother lost in the war, and they had abandoned the Hatakes. Rin hadn't seen Kakashi-kun again until the Academy, and by then a distant and fiercely independent stranger to her. She had wished for a time to be on a team with him if only just to look after him, and to maybe salvage some of her family's honor.</p><p>It seemed now that at least someone, Hakka-san, was willing to look after him just as she would Obito-kun.</p><p>"I think I like you Hakka-san," Rin told the other girl as she poured herself another cup of tea.</p><p>"I am still undecided on you, Nohara-san."</p><p>Rin smiled a little wider.</p><p>"I think I can live with that."</p><p>
  <strong>XVI.</strong>
</p><p>His teammates might chastise him from time to time about always joking around, but even they appreciated being able laugh in the midst of battle when things should've been serious. After all, his team would at some point be facing off against the Yellow Flash's students in their exams, one of which was already a chuunin (and how was that even fair?). He knew he ought to keep up his team's spirits as best as possible.</p><p>Although it seemed unnecessary in Gai's case, since he already seemed pumped up beyond belief to be fighting the Hatake kid. He'd been so quick in his excitement to get at him and steal away their scroll that he'd knee'd the Uchiha in the face in his haste.</p><p>That was where they were now, with the Uchiha flat on his back knocked out, his teammate standing guard over him. Gai and Hatake were trading blows almost too fast to track.</p><p>And him and Ebisu?</p><p>Standing side by side, trying to not to crack up and take their attention off of their opponents. He was sure that their proctor was shaking their head at the six of them. That thought just had him working even harder not to laugh.</p><p>If he and his teammate hadn't held off laughing, they probably would've been mowed down by the girl and the previously unconscious Uchiha who suddenly rushed them. Unexpectedly, the girl came after him while the Uchiha went after Ebisu. For some reason, he would've had her pegged as the type to go after his other teammate, who looked physically weaker in comparison to him and Gai. Then again, maybe he was underestimating her because she was a girl, assuming she'd go after the easier fight as the weakest of her own team. For all he knew, she might be the tougher of the two.</p><p>His suspicions were confirmed the moment he went to take another leap away to put distance between them, and his legs immediately gave beneath him.</p><p>In half a second, his hands were together performing the seals for shunshin. The other half second later, he was on his ass a few meters away watching as the patch of forest floor he would've fallen upon was turned into a pincushion of senbon.</p><p>"Ah, I missed."</p><p>The girl was now standing there next to her patch of senbon, shooting him a curious look.</p><p>Before she could do anything else, he quickly took a breath and spat the senbon in his mouth at her and prepared to shunshin away. Even as he landed ungracefully in his new spot, he found that he had not lost her at all. There she was standing right before him on the tree branch he'd hoped to hide on.</p><p>And she had his senbon.</p><p>It was in her mouth.</p><p>No, correction, it was in her teeth.</p><p>His eyes went wide in awe.</p><p>She had caught his senbon. <em>With her teeth.</em></p><p>Fumbling with his hands to form the seals for shunshin again, he found himself interrupted when the girl grabbed one of his hands with a surprisingly tight grip, pressed the back flat against the bark of the tree and then-</p><p>-<em>drove a kunai through the palm of his hand.</em></p><p>So pained and shocked at the brutality, he didn't even notice she repeated the same treatment with his other hand until it was already done. Both hands stung like hell for all of five seconds before going blissfully numb, much like his legs. He turned his head to look at each of his impaled and sluggishly bleeding hands, and then to look straight at her, his senbon drooping lazily from the corner of her mouth like it belonged there.</p><p><em>Indirect kiss,</em> he thought, staring really hard at her mouth before leaning his head back against the tree and busting out laughing.</p><p>He may have imagined her lips twitching, but he was so sure they did. She reached into his coat and pulled the scroll out from where he had stashed it. After another beat, she reached for his side and took his senbon holder, too.</p><p>"Gratefully accepted," she informed him as she held her prizes up for him to see.</p><p>Still unable to figure out exactly why his interactions with the girl were so amusing as opposed to humiliating, he tipped his chin up as if to tell her, <em>You're very welcome. </em>In response, she put her goodies away and then pulled a bottle of a milky liquid out of her own pouch. He watched curiously as she tucked it into the pocket where the scroll had been.</p><p>"What's that for?"</p><p>"Antidote," she answered, standing and backing away from him.</p><p>"Hey," he said, noticing she was preparing to go, "My name is Shiranui Genma. What's yours Senbon-chan?"</p><p>And this time, he was sure she smiled, because even though her back was turned he could see the senbon in her mouth tick upwards just over her shoulder. He never got his answer from her, because she'd already leapt down from the tree to report the scroll claimed.</p><p>"Well damn," he huffed.</p><p>He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be terrified or in love with her.</p><p>.</p><p>Only after he'd been rescued by his teammates and his hands healed, and his team went on to either watch or participate in the elimination rounds of the third part of the exam, was he able to learn her name was Hakka. Genma got to see it on the scoreboard quite a few times as he watched her knock out a couple more opponents before Gai finally took her out with an instant KO punch. After that match, Gai had come up to him, his face pinched in a perplexed expression that emphasized his eyebrows more than necessary.</p><p>"Was that your most Youthful senbon in her mouth?"</p><p>Next to Genma, Ebisu choked.</p><p>Genma laughed and laughed.</p><p>
  <strong>XVII.</strong>
</p><p>Wet, so wet and dirty and despicably cold. Such a disgusting place for her mistress to send her.</p><p>Keeping below the surface, she tunneled along underground as she followed the faceless apes. She went over her mistress's commands as she traveled, remembering to stay out of sight until the battle had commenced to do what she was sent for and deliver a message. Her mistress had stressed how important it was to stay alert and evade any jutsus thrown her way.</p><p>When the time was right, she burst out of the ground unnoticed to coil herself around the torso of the orange furred ape, hidden away in his clothing. She felt cold steel cut into her body as well as the ape's, but it was not fatal for either of them. Still, a part was meant to be played as mistress said, so she plunged her fangs into the ape and let him carry them both to the ground, cold and still as death.</p><p>Safe where she was, she listened to the sound of explosions, and yelling, and weeping. When the fighting sounds died away and she sensed only two strong and one weak ape chakra, she revealed herself to them.</p><p>"<em>This one has not yet passed," </em>she hissed to the ones who could hear her, drawing a gasp from the female ape.</p><p>"Get away from him."</p><p>The red furred ape's eyes gave her a moment's pause, before she ignored his words and went on, <em>"I have saved this one's life. Do not tell me if I can or cannot rest upon him."</em></p><p>"You keep saying you've saved him, but how can that be? I can no longer sense his chakra. He is… dead."</p><p>If she were more immature, she would've snorted.</p><p>"<em>Then your sensing ability is no good. Life chakra still burns in this one. I feel the warmth of it even in my scales. He lives."</em></p><p>Moving more slowly due to his wounds, his breath laboring, he lowered himself by the fallen orange ape and pressed his hands to his chest. His eyes went wide with realization.</p><p>"You're right."</p><p>"He's alive?" the female ape asked, desperation in her voice.</p><p>Silent tears began to spill anew down the cheeks of the blue female when the red ape nodded in confirmation.</p><p>"Why have you done this?"</p><p>"<em>For my mistress, who begs a favor in return."</em></p><p>The red ape's eyes narrowed.</p><p>"Who is your mistress? Why must we owe her anything?"</p><p>"<em>My mistress must not reveal herself. However, she claims that she has changed your fate from one of pain and death. In return, you who is to be savior, must heed her words if you hope to bring peace the world."</em></p><p>Though those words seemed to strike a chord with him, the ape still seemed wary.</p><p>"Why should we trust the words of a woman who hides herself away and sends serpents to treat with us on her behalf?" the blue ape demanded for him, "We have only just now barely survived a deception that could have ended us all."</p><p>"<em>She does not expect you to trust her,"</em> the creature intoned, <em>"She simply asks you to listen."</em></p><p>After a moment of tense silence where the apes look to one another, the red ape finally nodded.</p><p>"We'll listen."</p><p>
  <em>"Then listen well, oh savior."</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Chapter/Story Format Notes: I re-wrote a bit of Rin's backstory. Even in the first version, I didn't much like that practically every kunoichi on a team was set up to have a crush on a teammate. So I decided to make up a reason for Rin's interest in Kakashi that seemed reasonable while it could also plausibly be mistaken for a crush. So I made the Nohara family something like a vassal family to the Hatake before their fall, and I built more onto that. This may end up being more of a plot point later on.</p><p>Thoughts while reviewing chapter: Wooooow, when fucking Orochimaru can at least call a child a child and Danzou always uses dehumanizing language when referring to them. Also, I forgot how much I enjoyed Genma in this. There's just not enough good Genma content out there, he is a very underused and underrated character.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. XVII - XX</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Some discoveries to be made, both external and internal.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>XVIII.</strong>
</p><p>He was sitting sipping a cup of sake when the memories hit.</p><p>It was a little odd that they were coming so early. He shrugged after a moment. His clone had probably met its end at the hands of a lovely lady who it had gotten a bit fresh with. (The risk was always worth the loss of a clone.) A moment was needed to sort through the incoming barrage. At first, he'd been hoping that his kagebunshin had at least provided him with some juicy research material. And of course, that's how it had started with a detour to the bathhouses. There had been a couple of shapely goddesses his clone had taken interest in, until it had realized that someone was trying to cast a genjutsu on it.</p><p>That was where things in the memories got strange.</p><p>.</p><p><em>The kagebunshin quickly manipulated its small chakra to allow the invasion of foreign chakra to latch on, making it appear as if the genjutsu had successfully ensnared the real him instead of a clone.</em> <em>A</em><em> waiting game, to see when the caster would make their move. It didn't take long. He sensed movement behind him and forcefully quelled movements that would give away his anticipation. The caster was there at his shoulder, their arm pushing away his haori and reaching into the pocket of his hakama.</em></p><p>
  <em>In a flash, one of his hands clamped down on the caster's wrist while the other gripped their throat and swung them around so they were pressed against the wall of the bathhouse. To his surprise, the identity of his supposed assailant was already known to him. Hoping he hid his recognition well, he eased his grip on the girl and let an arrogant grin curl his lips.</em>
</p><p>"<em>Pretty brave of you tadpole-chan, to think you could mess with someone like me."</em></p><p>
  <em>She didn't dignify his comment with a response, instead staring back unimpressed, and reminding him too much of both Tsunade-hime and Orochi-teme with one look to be natural.</em>
</p><p>"<em>Ha! Do you even know who I am?"</em></p><p>
  <em>More staring and silence.</em>
</p><p>"<em>Oh come on!" he pouted, "You must know who I am?"</em></p><p>
  <em>Of course, he wasn't deluded for a second in believing that she didn't. It was all part of the act, letting them think him a fool and a pervert. That got them talking, thinking that they needed to explain everything to him because he were too damn clueless to understand their genius. Of course, that wasn't working out too well for him now. He checked off that tactic on his list and moved onto the next, retightening the fingers he had around her neck just a tad.</em>
</p><p>(If he bruised her too badly and this encounter got back to her teacher, there would be hell to pay.)</p><p>"<em>Whether you know who I am or not, using a jutsu on and attempting to steal from a fellow shinobi is a punishable offence," he informed her, his voice hard, "Maybe I should turn you over to the Military Police. Unless you convince me not to?"</em></p><p><em>Still no reaction. </em>Damn this one's cold, <em>he thought to himself and he frowned internally. Indulging his curiosity, he pulled the hand holding whatever it was she had been trying to take from him up so he could see what she'd been interested in. It was interesting to see that it was nothing that had already been in his pocket before this had happened. Just an innocuous scrap of paper.</em></p><p>
  <em>He eyed her. Had she been trying to leave that in his pocket?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Moving the hand on her neck down to her shoulder, he used the other to take the paper and look it over. No seals. No writing either. Maybe invisible ink. There was a drawing on it however, once he unfolded it. At first he wasn't sure what it was, but as he looked at it longer, it seemed to be a tree. Except, not like any tree he'd seen. It seemed as if there were two, growing out of each other. One tree inked in bold, thick strokes. The other looked like a shadow, an imprint. Like the first tree had been drawn with too much ink and when the paper was folded over, the blank side had leeched the excess to create a faded mirror image.</em>
</p><p>"<em>Is this supposed to mean something?" he asked, figuring it was worth trying the direct approach of figuring it out.</em></p><p>
  <em>She gave him a nod and nothing more.</em>
</p><p>"<em>Give me a hint?"</em></p><p>"<em>That is your hint," the girl said, speaking for the first time since this confrontation began, "Can you help me?"</em></p><p>"<em>And why should I do anything with this? With you?" he asked, waving the paper carelessly in her face. "Can't you give me anything else?"</em></p><p>"<em>I cannot."</em></p><p>
  <em>He was ready for her to give him a string of arguments to justify her silence. He wasn't ready for her to open her mouth wide and stick her tongue out. The minute he saw the seal on her tongue, it felt like fireworks shooting off in his synapses, connecting dots to dots to dots. And where the realizations ended left him intrigued and aghast, and still several steps away from having all the information.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But that was okay. He wasn't a spymaster for no reason.</em>
</p><p>"<em>I suppose I'll be helping you then, tadpole-chan."</em></p><p>
  <em>Another first, he got a smile once her mouth clicked closed. He would've rather he never saw it, though. He hated those kinds of smiles.</em>
</p><p>(The grey haired man set down a picture frame containing a smiling man, a wan looking woman in a bed holding a baby, then took another long pull from the sake bottle. Hopelessness lingered at the upturned corners of his lips.</p><p>"I fail everyone.")</p><p>"<em>I am glad to have your aid, Jiraiya-sama." Her eyes shifted to gaze just past his shoulder, seeming faraway. "Until we meet next time."</em></p><p>
  <em>And then the girl exploded into smoke.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Jiraiya huffed, holding back a sneeze. Kagebunshin? Not completely unexpected, just a little annoying. With a quick fire jutsu to burn the paper, the kagebunshin dismissed itself as well.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>.</em>
</p><p>Taking another sip of sake, Jiraiya stole a glance over the rim at his student, who as usual at their occasional "family dinners" was being disgustingly adorable with his girlfriend and irritating his own little student with the PDA. It was a comforting scene to come back to. It also answered why he was so willing to stick his neck out for a girl who was virtually a stranger. Things were always more complicated when you cared about people. Orochimaru was right about him. His heart bled, and bled, and he wondered if he would be left dry in the end.</p><p>"Ero-sensei!" a voice called, snapping him out of his thoughts. He saw Kushina-chan giving him a rather stern look, "Don't hog all the sake!"</p><p>"Maa, maa Kushina-chan, don't worry, there's plenty for you, too."</p><p>
  <strong>XIX.</strong>
</p><p>Why exactly was he here again?</p><p>A sideways peek at Minato-sensei and Kushina-san reminded him. Those terrible smiles, promising something painful, humiliating, and worst of all: cuddly. Since the moment he'd arrived, he'd made a tactical retreat to the least crowded corner of Kushina-san's apartment next to her houseplant.</p><p>Exactly who thought it would be a good idea to invite him to his teammates' birthday party? Didn't he make it clear on a regular basis that he didn't care a bit about them as long as they didn't get in his or sensei's way?</p><p>"Useless," he muttered.</p><p>Something niggled at him, at the words, at the thoughts.</p><p>And he did have to admit, useless wasn't completely true.</p><p>Kakashi had grudgingly been impressed that for entering the chunin exams as first time rookies, they'd actually both managed to pass. Well, he'd been more surprised about the dobe making it. There were days he wondered how the boy had even made it out of the Academy with his gaps in knowledge, inability to keep his emotions in check, and his perpetual tardiness. He could care less if the boy was telling the truth about what held him up so much, he made them waste all of their time they could be spending on missions or training waiting on him. It had been a surprise that he had only been five minutes late the day of the test, and actually managed to defeat his opponents during the one-on-one's.</p><p>As for the girl, he actually had expected her to pass.</p><p>If there was one compliment he would pay his female teammate, she seemed to embody what a true shinobi was. No emotion, adequate skills, professional attitude towards missions, kept to herself, and she even came with the added ability of curbing some of the dobe's bad habits. If he were feeling even more generous, he would admit she was the perfect teammate and the perfect counterbalance to their more flawed team member.</p><p>Still, as not-useless and tolerable as his teammates were slowly becoming, that didn't mean he actually wanted to celebrate the fact they had been born. They both apparently had birthdays within days of each other, and the girl had been strong armed into having a joint birthday with the dobe. One thing Kakashi had to be thankful for was that it was only one birthday and not two. He was sure he would've been forced to attend both.</p><p>Sighing, he scanned the room. Sensei and his girlfriend were talking to the Uchiha clan head's wife. His male teammate seemed like he was telling some animated tale to the Nohara girl and his little brat cousin, both of whom he had invited. Another look and he realized that his other teammate was nowhere to be found.</p><p><em>She escaped! </em>he thought with no small amount of envy.</p><p>Soon, he corrected himself, because he could still sense her somewhere in the apartment. As inconspicuously as he could, he slipped out of his corner and down the hall to investigate where she had gone. As it anticlimactically turned out, she was just in what seemed to be her room. He nodded to himself in approval at the simple set up of her room, forgiving the little things that gave away that this room belonged to her. The larger than standard shelves of books and scrolls, or the potted plants that lined her window, or startling number of fully stocked senbon cases covering half of her desk.</p><p>His eyes were eventually drawn to her, sitting on her bed, reading a scroll on pressure points.</p><p>He almost jumped when he saw her staring back at him, having caught him standing at her open door watching her. Glad his face mask would hide most of his shock, he quickly quirked an eyebrow at her and her book to turn the situation back around on her.</p><p>In response, she stood, went to her bookcase, and grabbed a book.</p><p>"If you would like to join me, Hatake-san," she said, and then held out the book.</p><p>Call it temporary insanity, or anything else that meant that he wasn't of right mind or in control of himself at the time, but he took one step forward and then another. Finally, he was standing in front of her and the book's cover was facing up at him. Maybe he might've left to return to his corner once he'd satisfied his curiosity about what she'd thought could interest him out of her library. But the title read Manipulating Elemental Chakra, and the table of contents said there were chapters on how to channel elemental chakra into weapons and use it to create a new technique.</p><p>Before he realized it, he was leaning against a piece of wall, already several pages in.</p><p>And he could've left then, too.</p><p>He could've left even when the dobe, his cousin, and the Nohara girl came to his teammate's room to see what they were up to.</p><p>Could have left when, after the girl silenced all of them with a finger to her lips, pulled some more things from her shelves - an advanced taijutsu scroll with illustrations, a book on ninja basics, and a book on poisons and how to counter them, and then handed them to each of them with an offer to join them.</p><p>He didn't though.</p><p>Even when the adults, finally noticing the lack of noise, came to investigate as well and he caught the bewildered but pleased looks on their faces as they took in the scene. All of them, sitting on the bed, strewn across the floor, leaning against the wall, reading.</p><p>"Glad you're enjoying your present Hakka-chan," he could hear Kushina-san say, "Whenever all of you are hungry, there's food in the kitchen for all of you."</p><p>She received five grunts of absent acknowledgement in response.</p><p>
  <strong>XX.</strong>
</p><p>"S-sensei?" he finally said, hating how his voice wavered like it had.</p><p>"Yes Obito-kun?"</p><p>"I messed up today, right?" When sensei didn't answer immediately, he pushed on. "I know I did. I messed up. A-And Hakka-chan and Kakashi, they got-" He took a breath. "Sensei, why haven't you yelled at me yet?"</p><p>"Would it help?"</p><p>"I-I, don't know? Maybe?"</p><p>A hand landed on his head.</p><p>"I don't know if it would help you either, but I know it won't help me, so I won't be yelling. To be honest, I'd had doubts about this mission from the start. I took the mission even though I wasn't sure if the three of you would be ready, and then I left all of you alone. It was my fault."</p><p>"No sensei! It wasn't your fault, it-"</p><p>
  <em>It was my fault! My fault! My fault!</em>
</p><p>As if to save him from his thoughts, the hand on his head gave his spikes a ruffle and pushed his goggles down over his eyes.</p><p>"I know you think it's your fault Obito-kun. Mistakes were made, but not all of them were yours. You just wanted to help your teammate."</p><p>"Yeah, and I got both of them hurt, instead."</p><p>His mind wandered back to their mission. To the moment that man had laid his hands on his teammate. And he'd known, known that the purpose of their mission was espionage, that Hakka-chan was doing her part to extract information from the target. But the scene had looked a little too real. She was a little too good at looking defenseless and scared, and when that man had slapped her hard enough for her head to snap jarringly to one side and blood to leak from the corner of her mouth, he just lost it.</p><p>Obito wasn't exactly a stranger to seeing people hurt. Once a member of the Uchiha clan joined the Academy, they were brought along for patrols with the Military Police for some experience protecting the village. Seeing the civilians preyed upon by ninja and other predators had always made him sick. He'd never be in the Military Police; it wasn't in him to work alongside his stuffy clansmen like that. However, he did believe in using his strength to protect the weak. On those patrols, he'd been held back by the adults from helping those people out.</p><p>This time, he'd thought, he wasn't going to let anyone hold him back.</p><p>Without much more than glancing at where Bakashi was supposed to be, he'd rushed in to defend Hakka-chan.</p><p>For a moment, it had been exhilarating standing over the jerk who thought he could hurt his teammate and grinning winningly at her.</p><p>Then everything descended into chaos as the man leapt right back up and called for his ninja guard to seize them. Kakashi had jumped in at some point to help them out, but there were just too many enemies and all of them had been chunin, too.</p><p>They had been lucky, so lucky that Minato-sensei had come back right then to save them. Obito had thought everything was okay until he looked his team over and realized what his reckless move had caused. Their target was dying and both Hakka-chan and Kakashi were hurt, Hakka-chan moving with a limp and Kakashi trying to play off a non-fatal but still significant stab wound as fine and failing.</p><p>And of course, Obito had come out of the entire thing with nothing worse than just a cut on his cheek.</p><p>The mission was still partially successful because Hakka-chan had managed to extract information they'd needed from the man. However, with the secrecy of the mission compromised and two team members injured, they had gotten a pay dock and a lecture from the Hokage himself.</p><p>Well, only he and Minato-sensei had been there to hear it when they turned in their mission report. Hakka-chan had been forced to take a woozy-from-blood-loss-but-ready-to-flee Kakashi to the hospital as soon as they got to the village so both of them could be treated.</p><p>(God, he could still see Kakashi's blood on the metal protector of sensei's gloves when he'd had to stitch him up once they'd gotten somewhere safe. His blood, his fault, his-)</p><p>"Obito-kun." And suddenly he was sitting and Minato was crouched in front of him. "Please listen to me Obito-kun."</p><p>Because he said please, the boy swallowed his apologies and tried to listen.</p><p>"This was not a mission that the three of you were ready to handle as a team and that's not your fault. I can't go back and change my decision to take the mission just like you can't take back attacking the target when you did. What we can do is make sure that if this ever happens again, we can try to make better decisions next time. I will not accept an espionage mission again until I think I've trained the three of you enough to handle one. What can you do next time so this doesn't happen again?"</p><p>"I'll train more. Get stronger so I can protect them?" he asked more than said, hoping this was the answer sensei was looking for.</p><p>Based on the look sensei gave him, it wasn't.</p><p>"That's good, but there's something else. Think about why you felt like you needed to act when you did."</p><p>He did. Thought about how great it had been in the moment to be the hero and shove it in Bakashi's face that he was the one saving Hakka-chan. How great it had been that he knew better than both of them.</p><p>It was galling to come to the realization that he didn't trust either of them enough to gauge the situation and handle themselves. He'd yelled at Bakashi a couple of times now for taking down the guy Obito was supposed to be fighting, though he knew he may not have been able to handle them himself. And Hakka-chan had KO'd him enough times in spars to prove that if she were in trouble, she would've just put a senbon in the guy's neck and called it a day. Both of them would've known better than he would if Hakka-chan had really been in danger.</p><p>"Trust," he murmured.</p><p>"Yes, Obito-kun." And then sensei's hand was on his head again. "Getting stronger is good, but you have to learn when it's less about strength and more about trust, too. You may not always get along, but when you have teammates, trust and teamwork are the most important things to remember."</p><p>Minato-sensei's words sounded wise. They probably were. He was a smart guy, and that's half the reason why he respected him so much. However wise they were, they were still a little hard to swallow. Sensei promised he would do better, though, so Obito could promise too.</p><p>He nodded like he understood, and made the effort to stop drowning in tears of self-pity behind his goggles.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Chapter/Story Format Notes: Nope! Just grammar and making things read a little smoother. Large chunks of Obito's POV were written in present and not past tense. Tense switching happens to me all the time whenever I write, I just clearly didn't catch it originally.</p><p>Thoughts while reviewing the chapter: Jiraiya's voice has always been a bit hard for me. He's an interesting but problematic Naruto character. There's a little flashback scene I buried in his POV that I debated taking out. I was ambitious with it, and I'm still not sure it ever will tie into the greater part I planned for it. Anyone who guesses what this was, I'll be impressed with you!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was originally a fic I started many years ago on FFnet as a quick distraction fic from a different SI/OC I was writing. Funny how I got so much more invested in Runner instead, but sometimes that's writing for you.</p><p>I've been meaning to restart writing this story again, so I'm beginning to cross post it here and trickling out weekly revised chapters of what's already on FFnet. (If you want to read ahead, you're welcome to start there.) The revisions will likely be mostly fixing spelling/grammar/wording, but if anything major does change from that version to this one, I'll flag it in the notes.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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